THE ITELMENS

Self-designation. The Itelmens use the self-designation itenme'n-itelmen
which means 'an inhabitant of dry land, a human being'. Since the first
written data in the middle of the 18th century (S. Krasheninnikov), the
Itelmens have been known as the Kamchadals, that is, the inhabitants of
Kamchatka. The Russian equivalent was derived from kamchalo, the name that
was used by the Koryaks for Itelmens. The name Itelmens came into common
use after the 1920s, when the self-designations of different peoples were
fixed by the Soviet authorities. The name Kamchadal was used to denote
russified Itelmens, later it came to denote all the Russian-speaking local
inhabitants of Kamchatka.

Habitat. The Itelmens inhabit the area between Sedanka and Sopochnoye on
the western coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula. In the 18th century they
inhabited almost the whole of the peninsula, but their habitat later decreased
considerably. On an administrative level the territory of the Itelmens
forms a part of the Tigil District of the Koryak Autonomous Territory in
the Kamchatka Region of the Russian Federation. The climate is mildly monsoon,
the average temperature in January is -11 °C and in July +12 °C.

Population. The following data exists from censuses:

native speakers

1889

4,029

1897

?

1926

803 (+ 3,414 Russian-speaking Kamchadals)

1959

1,109

36 %

1970

1,301

35.7 %

1979

1,370

24.4 %

1989

2,480

19.6 %

The Itelmens form a rather small part of the total population of the Koryak
Autonomous Territory. A slight increase in the population does not mean
that the situation has improved greatly, for the number of native speakers
is steadily diminishing. For instance, in 1979 about 350 people were recorded
as speaking Itelmen, the same number as in 1959. A decrease in the number
of native speakers of Itelmen means a respective increase in the number
of the Kamchadals.

Anthropologically the Itelmens belong together with the Koryaks to the
Mongoloid North-Asian race. They are short and rather stocky. Wide faces
with prominent cheekbones are characterized by the Mongolian fold. They
have a darkish skin, and dark eyes and hair (dark brown or black). Beard
growth is poor.

The Itelmen language belongs to the Chukchi-Kamchatka group of Paleo-Asiatic
languages. It is an incorporative language. Itelmen is supposed to have
separated from the common proto-language earlier than the Chukchi and the
Koryak languages. In the course of time, the Itelmens have been assimilated
(mainly into Russian-speaking Kamchadals) and their habitat has diminished.
Of all the dialects the following ones have survived: the Sedanka or the
northern dialect, the Hairyuzov or the southern dialect, and the Nopan
dialect. The differences between the dialects are not significant. The
native speakers themselves think that the northern dialect is harsher,
the southern more melodious. The Nopan dialect is the most prevalent, but
it has not gained dominance over the others. As there are only slight differences
between the dialects, and the language has not been researched thoroughly,
the number of dialects has been variously recorded as 2 (S. Stebnitsky)
and 4 (P. Skorik).

Language. The morphological structure of the Itelmen language makes it
similar to the other Paleo-Asiatic languages. The differences are of a
phonetic nature and are the result of various external influences. The
Itelmens have associated mainly with the Koryaks, the Evens, the Ainus
and the Negidals.

Despite differences in meaning, the Itelmens share a genuine linguistic
root with the Koryaks and the Chukchi. All the traditional spheres of life
are covered by native vocabulary. The seeping influence of Russian began
in the 1930s and was accompanied by social changes. Today all the Itelmens
are bilingual and Russian has become their second language. At the same
time the influence of Russian is dangerously pervasive and can be observed
on a lexical, phonetical and grammatical level. Word loans include not
only nouns, but verbs, adverbs, numerals and conjunctions as well. Due
to the close association with the Kamchadals the borderline between the
Itelemens and the Kamchadals has become somewhat illusionary.

History. The origins of the Itelmens are not very clear, but it is clear
that they are native inhabitants of Kamchatka. They probably moved to Kamchatka
some 6,000--7,000 years ago from the mainland of Asia, when the Chukchi-Kamchatka
aborigines (including the ancestors of the Itelmens) had contacts with
the ancestors of the American Indians. The Itelmens are traditionally fishermen
and fur hunters and they are reputably the best herbalists among the Nordic
peoples.

The Russians came to Kamchatka in the 17th century. The first campaign
was led by V. Atlasov in 1697--98, who began immediately with the help of
Cossacks and Yukaghirs to collect tributes. (It was no accident that the
Yukaghirs were there. Russian colonizers brutally used conquered peoples
in the suppression of their neighbours.) At the beginning of the 18th century
the conversion of the Itelmens to Russian Orthodoxy had already begun.
The Uspensk monastery was built, and from the 1740s on Russian peasants
were settled on the peninsula. The Itelmens found themselves under strong
economic and ideological pressure. The agents collecting tribute were often
neither fair nor honest and went unpunished. When the amount of fur was
not considered to be sufficient, they requisitioned dried fish, seal oil,
cedar nuts, and even sledges and boats. A part of the population was constantly
kept hostage. The Itelmens expressed their anger in several uprisings (1706,
1711, 1731) and in 1740 when almost all the Itelmens rose to fight Russians.
The uprisings were brutally suppressed and many Itelmens were deported
and their tribes dispersed.

Gradually the Itelmens had to resign themselves to the presence of the
Russians. Following the example of the Russians they began to use iron
tools, fishing nets, new utensils and clothes. The local Russians in their
turn adjusted themselves to the environment of the Itelmens, and as a result
of mixed marriages a mixed population, known as the Kamchadals, was created.
Survival was hard for the Itelmens. The tax-collectors were not easily
satisfied, and tributes were demanded even of the dead. Diseases (typhoid
fever and smallpox, for instance) introduced by the Russians had a devastating
effect. In the 19th century trading became a little more active. Firearms,
ammunition, sugar, tobacco, tea and other usual colonial goods reached
the territory of the Itelmens. Quite soon many people had debts, frequently
as a result of a susceptibility to vodka.

A tribal system and barter economy managed to survive until the time of
Soviet collectivization. Despite formal baptizing, animism still held sway.
Soviet power came to the Itelmens in 1921. Initially, on the surface very
little changed. Collective work and an associated way of life was a continuation
of the traditional ways, and the new planned economy was similar to tribute
collecting. The new ideology attacked animism more fiercely, of course,
than the old Orthodoxy had done and political propaganda was rife in schools
and inherent in the recently created written language. There was a pressure
to discard the old ways and to adopt the new Soviet traditions. By the
end of the 1930s all teaching in schools was in Russian, and by the 1950s
there was no longer any difference between the Russians and the Itelmens.
The Kamchadals acted as an intermediate stage in the russification of the
Itelmens. The native language is now used at home only, and in mixed marriages
Russian predominates. A new alphabet and a written language, created in
1986, are without real foundation. This is an example of yet another short-lived
campaign.

Writing. The Itelmens received their written language during the Soviet
period. In 1930 a unified alphabet for the Nordic peoples was created.
It consisted of 28 characters and was based on the Latin alphabet. In 1932
an Itelmen alphabet, consisting of 27 characters was created at the Polytechnic
of the Nordic Peoples in Khabarovsk, and sanctioned by the Research Department
of the Institute of Northern Peoples in Leningrad. With the help of Itelmen
students E. Orlova compiled a primer "Ntanselqzaalkicen!" (Let us start
to study!) which was published in 1932. It was followed by a first year
textbook of arithmetic (1933). Then the publishing activity ceased. In
1980, following a decree of the Central Committee of the Communist Party
of the Soviet Union on the development of the economic and social life
of the Northern Peoples, it was decided to recreate the Itelmen written
language. A new Cyrillic alphabet consisting of 32 characters and compiled
by A. Volodin was published in 1986. There is no information that the alphabet
was ever used.

Research. The Itelmen language was first recorded by S. Krasheninnikov,
who took part in the second Kamchatka expedition of V. Bering in 1737--41.
He published his book "Description of the Land of Kamchatka" in 1755. The
beginning of academic research into the Itelmens begins with V. Bogoraz,
who was active in the 'Narodnaya Volya' movement and was exiled to northeast
Siberia where he became a competent researcher of local peoples and their
languages. In a handbook 'Chukchi' published in 1922 he compared the Chukchi
with the other Paleo-Asiatic peoples and gave a survey of the Itelmens
and their language. A separate treatment of the Itelmen language by S.
Stebnitsky was published in 1934 and an improved survey was written by
A. Volodin and A. Zhukova in 1968. The sole dictionary was published in
1891--94 in Cracow by Y. Radlinski. The Itelmen texts, collected at the
beginning of the century by V. Jochelson, have been published by D. S.
Worth (Kamchadal Texts. Los Angeles, 1961). There are no academic monographs
or dictionaries of the Itelmen language.